Cassie Taylor
Album: Out Of My Mind
Label: Hypertension
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.cassietaylorband.com/

Some people almost seem born for a role, maybe not from the first minute they are placed in the womb, but certainly almost from the moment time decides they are going to leave it. Cassie Taylor is the daughter of blues man, Otis Taylor, she grew up in a household where she was not only regularly exposed to her father making music, but albums of the artists that inspired her dad and it's fair to say some of those influences took hold.

"Out Of My Mind", an album penned by Cassie Taylor, kicks off with "Ol' Mama Dean (Part 1)", quickly followed by "Ol' Mama Dean (Part 2)", but that's a slightly different story. The import thing is that it's a track that draws drum and theremin, which shows that we have an artist who is prepared to innovate, but by referencing the late great, Ritchie Havens in the same songs, you can also feel her laying claim to the blues heritage.

There is a lot of variation across the album, there are times when you can hear the different blues origins and influences, some of it soulfully driven, some of it channelling New Orleans and even pulling in some Western African psyche, where Taylor sets herself up carefully is the way she pulls those strands together and sprinkles it with her own personality.

I do get the impression that she's got a studio floor littered with experiments that didn't quite work, to quote Potterworld, potions that blew the cauldron apart, but they are concealed in her own little lab and she saves the album for the ones that worked. Consequently "Out Of My Mind" is an album that feels innovative and together, one well worth checking out and one that belies her relatively young years.

Neil King